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[PanicProne]

This is probably gonna be a huuuge amout of text but anyways, here goes:

Allright. I'm in the final stage of setting up my pedalboard! (I'm absolutely obsessed with pedals). I've be getting two or thre more pedals before I have my dream setup (Oh come on! there's always new interesting stuff around). At the moment I'm in two bands. One punk band. I've got a really cheap solid state head (JJ Labs 2X75hv) that fits the sound for my punk songs perfectly. I've got one main guitar, my Ibanez Ar250 w seymour duncans (Jazz in neck and custom custom in bridge)

So far I'm pretty pleased. The thing is I'm in a different band too. Our sound is more experimental rock/metal and that's where my pedals come in... The amp doesn't fit this band at all! The distortion is ok. But what annoys me is the clean channel. Sadly I have to say it's absolutely rubbish. And since I'm depending quite a bit on a nice clean tone for delays and so on I'm thinking of getting another amp. At the moment I'm thinking of getting a tube amp with a nice clean channel and then do the heavier parts (with distorion etc) through pedals. Any thoughts on this? Also I've been using the same guitar for both bands, problem is, punk's in standard E while the other band's in Dropped C. So it's really killing my guitar and taking the mickey out of the strings. Even though I love it and would like to use it all the time I've decided to let it handle punk duties since I'm so happy with my sound there.

So bottom line is:
- I'll be looking for a different/another amp for my metal band with nice clean tone and goes good with fx.
- New guitar for metalband. (Anyone tried the G&L guitars?)
- Preferably (if there's still money left) a nice pratice amp that handles fx well.


Ok. I thing you guys got the issue. And I know there's gonna be alot of comments and follow-up questions on this but hey, that's what forums are for right? So feel free to yell at me or help me out!

//Sean

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

you seem to be investing a lot of money in order to sound good in that metal band, i hope that investment is worth it mate.

so how big the investment is? do you have any specific budget for the tube amp/guitar/practice amp/pedals?

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[Marc_Maiden]

So bottom line is:
- I'll be looking for a different/another amp for my metal band with nice clean tone and goes good with fx.
- New guitar for metalband. (Anyone tried the G&L guitars?)
- Preferably (if there's still money left) a nice pratice amp that handles fx well.


Ok. I thing you guys got the issue. And I know there's gonna be alot of comments and follow-up questions on this but hey, that's what forums are for right? So feel free to yell at me or help me out!

//Sean

well personally...you should stick with ibanez guitars...they are very versatile and can handle a lot from metal to jazz...id go with an S or RG, but if you are going to be down tuning a bunch, you might want to stick with a fixed bridge RG...you can get decent ones starting from the RG3XX...if you need to have a trem, the Edge 3 is a great trem, much better than the license floyd roses, but like most entry level trems, will have a little trouble at first with down tuning...id go with the S series in that case because the ZR trem can handle A LOT and is easily set up.

G&L isnt exactly that great for metal...they are more blues, jazz, classic rock kinda guitars...but thats just me

as for the amp...id stay away from line 6 because its such a common tone now its really lifeless (no offense to any line 6 users) if i were you, id search around for a multi effects pedal to get a metal tone...i wouldnt go all out and buy a new big amp...just find a multi effects pedal you like, and plug into your existing set up. if you have to have an amp though, i dont think anything beats mesa for metal...but if thats out of your price range go with something like randal or peavy...you can get a full 5150 head with cab for around 600-650 used in good condition these days...

for the practice amp: roland cube all the way....best sounding solid states ive heard ...but thats just me...i am completely in love with mine and i dont think you canget anything better for the price.

hope that helps!

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[inertia]

G&L make incredible guitars. Strats in general are very versatile and some players like Yngwie use strats (he uses a fender with custom pickups) but the G&L strats are just as versatile as the Fenders. I like the Legacy better than the standard strat.
It seems everyone these days is using a variety of guitars for metal but using the EMG 81/85 pickup combo

If you want a nice practice amp, the Fender Super Champ XD is one of the best practice amps you can buy. It has both tube preamp and power amp, and also has digital voice modelling, so you get the Fender cleans but you there are voices for Marshalls and heavier amps. Plus it has a some decent effects. The Clean channel takes pedals amazingly well including overdrive, distortion, and scorching gain pedals. I would recommend that amp to anyone. Fender actually just raised the price on the amp because it's been doing so well. Plus it sounds great at low volumes but it's loud enough jamming. I have one at home and I never put the volume past 4 and it's quite loud even at 3.

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[shammy]

superchamp xd all the way

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[PanicProne]

Allright, to answer some questions...

To Ivan, This is both a realistic but still a bit of a dreamy thread. It's not like I'm gonna rush to the store and by everything at once.... But then again where are you gonna get in life without dreams.

What feels most critical at the moment is a good guitar and a cool pratice amp. I've got a fender frontman 15G but it doesn't handle effects at all. It has no loop, for some reason it's not able to put through the sound of a flanger or phaser and the volume knob gets very loud really quick. I try to keep it at one but it is still waaay too loud for the flat where I live.. And also everything gets treblish and cuts blood from your ears nomatter how I set the eq. UGH!

With guitar I have kind of a problem. I guess I'm just shallow. I can't stand guitars I think are "ugly". For what's worse, I'm not easy on the looks. I chose my Ibanez I'm currently using because o f it's looks and most importantly the feel of the body and neck.. From the moment I played it the first time I knew it was MY guitar (oh true looove..)
Also I really enjoy some twang in my tone but sadly you don't get that a lot from humbuckers. So I'll mostly be going after a "feel-good" guitar at first and then experiment with pickups and so on for the sound...

As for the tube amp thing. That's in the future somewhere. Tube amps are pretty pricy so I'll have to save up some money. But if anyone has a suggestions feel free to give it to me..I absolutely adore the sound of a Marshall JCM 800. Problem is it's only got one channel. So I'm thinking of, as I said, a nice clean tone amp and then probably the MI Audio crunch box. How d'you guys think it would work out?

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

Well Marshall JCM800 is a great amp, and it has good cleans for a Marshall, but it is more for rock than metal. Yes it can be used for metal as well, but it's a bit dirty and unprecise for that style IMO.
As for practice amp... not lot of them have FX loop in practice range, I suggest you check out maybe Laney lx65r, or something similar maybe randall, that's a good quality for bedroom.
As for guitar if you need some twang you can always get HSS, or HSH combination of pickups. If you like that neck single clash, go for HSS.

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[PanicProne]

thanks for the pickup combinaiton idea. Well. Even though I play heavy stuff I'm not really looking for an all out metal tone. So the JCM 800 is really what I'm looking for. Well at least what I've heard of it. The heavy overdrive/distortion tone I'm looking for is a bit like "Firebreather" by Thrice (myspace.com/thrice). They've used just that, a JCM 800 and a baritone Jaguar. (Anyone with opinions on Jags? And yeah, we tune Drop C..)

Even though I'm kinda having a look into both it's not like I want to copy their tone fo the fullest. But at least it's somewhere close to where I wanna get and somewhere to start from. But like I said, that amp only has one channel..and I need at least one good clean and one nice drive.

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